Practice Journals

The student practice journal is a writing journal that students must have with them whenever they are on Khan Academy. Their entries must be dated and titled with the topic that they are working on. I check these from time to time as another point of data on how they are spending their time.

Goal Setting

The use of goal setting is the primary tool that I use to direct students learning. These goals are established by me and share with students through a google document (you can see them here). The goals are linear but some students start farther up or down on the list. I design the goals to contain related exercises and also to be completed in manageable chunks. My idea is usually to create a goal that a student with average speed will complete in a week.

Grades and Assessment in Khan Academy

I assess student work in Khan Academy strictly as time on topic. Were you on it? Were you working on the goal that was set up for you? Pedagogically, effort is the only thing that I want to give students critical feedback on. Are you working hard? If not why? How can we fix it?

Calculators

I allow students to use calculator to do calculations that are not immediately related to the skill they are practicing. Again, abuse of this policy goes back to the classroom culture. It goes back to the idea that this is not about me.

Headphones and Music

Students in the outside Khan group may listen to music through headphones. They can also watch videos this way.